The invention relates to a flow regulator with a regulator housing, which has, in a passage channel, a central body, which is surrounded by an annular throttle body made from elastic material, wherein this throttle body bounds a control gap between itself and an adjacent peripheral surface provided with control recesses, which are spaced apart from each other in the circumferential direction and which are oriented in the flow direction, wherein the passage cross-section of the control gap can be changed by the throttle body deforming under the pressure difference created by the flow.
Flow regulators of the type noted above are already known in different constructions. With the help of such flow regulators, the maximum flow rate per unit of time to a sanitary consuming location can be made uniform independent of the water pressure of the flowing water. In many fields of use, however, it would be desirable to be able to change the maximum flow rate, in order to be able to adapt the flow rate of the water to be heated to the different flow temperatures in summer and winter for gas wall heaters. Such a change or adjustment of the flow rate has usually been possible until now only by exchanging the flow regulator and replacing it with a different flow regulator with a different flow rate. The expense associated with exchanging such a flow regulator, however, can be relatively high.